I think that every Harry Potter themed Christmas Tree need to pay tribute to Messers Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, the original mischief makers and creators of the Marauder's Map. A Marauder's Map ornament therefore is mandatory.
I've found that there are several map templates online, which, with a little tweaking, can be used to make Christmas Ornaments.
You can buy parchment paper for your printer or stain your own paper, and then print out this white background Marauder's Map. Cut, glue together and fold, and you have a simple version of the map. I resized this map to make miniature Marauder's Maps 6 cm tall, stretched it a bit to make it a little wider, darkened the colours and put all three images into one for easy printing. Below is the exact image I made, right click to download and save. This map will fit on an A4 parchment sheet, no need to glue any parts together or anything.
The above is the easiest, and a perfectly good, option. On the other hand, if you hang the map directly on the treeI think it's even cooler with an exact replica of the map, with all those little folding flaps and things inside. This tutorial shows you how to make an exact replica, but in a smaller size. There's also a link to a full sized map. I downloaded and resized the images to make an 8 cm tall map. I tried to remove as much of the old parchment effect as possible, as I think it looks much better to print on actual parchment paper. At one point I made one trial version of this map, and was actually quite pleased with the result, though I feel that I should have removed even more of the old parchment effect. I used this exact image, which fits on an A4 parchment sheet (Credit to MuggleMagic).
If you need yet another option, a woman named Britta Petersen made her very own Marauder's Map (link to downloadable pdf with instructions, print last page on parchment paper) for a party at her house back in 2005, and while it's not the exact Harry Potter one, it's still super cool! It is also the one the EPBOTs have on their Potter tree.
Although I kind of liked how the exact replica turned out, I had already made 8 of the first and easiest maps. I was really only moderately pleased with how they turned out, a little small and inconspicuous, so I put the whole project aside for the time being. Because now I faced the challenge of figuring out how to hang them without ripping the relatively thin parchment paper. I had made 8 swirly "Always"-inspired ornament hooks before I made the actual maps, after all. I couldn't come up with a good idea at all, and in the meantime I'd completely forgotten where I'd put my nearly finished miniature Marauder's Maps!
But early one morning, in between sleep and wake, I came up with a rather brilliant idea, if I may say so myself! During the process of deciding which Harry Potter themed Christmas Ornaments I was going to make for my daughter's Advent Calendar, I'd seen both miniature howlers and miniature books suspended by clear, thin fishing line inside clear, round baubles, making it look like the miniature items were floating inside the baubles. I'd originally bought a few clear baubles to make another ornament, but now I decided that I'd much rather suspend my Marauder's Maps inside them!
I could not for the life of me find the maps I'd already made, a good thing really, because they would have been too big for the 7 cm baubles I'd purchased. So I made some smaller ones, using this exact image:
Quite a bit of cutting and folding later, I had 8 tiny maps ready to be hung inside the clear baubles. Problem was, the maps wouldn't stay folded together, requiring them to be fixated somehow, still showing some of the wanted the folding. I solved this problem by adding a generous dot of glue gun glue between all the folds. That way the paper stuck together with a little bit of space between the folds. I glued a loop of very thin fishing line to the backmost inside part of the map, and just trapped the fishing line between the two halves of the bauble as I pressed those together. I added a gryffindor red ribbon bowtie to the top of the bauble, but the ornament still looked rather naked. So I modified and printed, cut and then ModPodged some Marauder related little symbols to the sides and back of the bauble - some footprints and a little Mischief Managed did the trick and made the ornament even more special in my opinion.
I've found that there are several map templates online, which, with a little tweaking, can be used to make Christmas Ornaments.
You can buy parchment paper for your printer or stain your own paper, and then print out this white background Marauder's Map. Cut, glue together and fold, and you have a simple version of the map. I resized this map to make miniature Marauder's Maps 6 cm tall, stretched it a bit to make it a little wider, darkened the colours and put all three images into one for easy printing. Below is the exact image I made, right click to download and save. This map will fit on an A4 parchment sheet, no need to glue any parts together or anything.
The above is the easiest, and a perfectly good, option. On the other hand, if you hang the map directly on the treeI think it's even cooler with an exact replica of the map, with all those little folding flaps and things inside. This tutorial shows you how to make an exact replica, but in a smaller size. There's also a link to a full sized map. I downloaded and resized the images to make an 8 cm tall map. I tried to remove as much of the old parchment effect as possible, as I think it looks much better to print on actual parchment paper. At one point I made one trial version of this map, and was actually quite pleased with the result, though I feel that I should have removed even more of the old parchment effect. I used this exact image, which fits on an A4 parchment sheet (Credit to MuggleMagic).
If you need yet another option, a woman named Britta Petersen made her very own Marauder's Map (link to downloadable pdf with instructions, print last page on parchment paper) for a party at her house back in 2005, and while it's not the exact Harry Potter one, it's still super cool! It is also the one the EPBOTs have on their Potter tree.
Although I kind of liked how the exact replica turned out, I had already made 8 of the first and easiest maps. I was really only moderately pleased with how they turned out, a little small and inconspicuous, so I put the whole project aside for the time being. Because now I faced the challenge of figuring out how to hang them without ripping the relatively thin parchment paper. I had made 8 swirly "Always"-inspired ornament hooks before I made the actual maps, after all. I couldn't come up with a good idea at all, and in the meantime I'd completely forgotten where I'd put my nearly finished miniature Marauder's Maps!
But early one morning, in between sleep and wake, I came up with a rather brilliant idea, if I may say so myself! During the process of deciding which Harry Potter themed Christmas Ornaments I was going to make for my daughter's Advent Calendar, I'd seen both miniature howlers and miniature books suspended by clear, thin fishing line inside clear, round baubles, making it look like the miniature items were floating inside the baubles. I'd originally bought a few clear baubles to make another ornament, but now I decided that I'd much rather suspend my Marauder's Maps inside them!
I could not for the life of me find the maps I'd already made, a good thing really, because they would have been too big for the 7 cm baubles I'd purchased. So I made some smaller ones, using this exact image:
Quite a bit of cutting and folding later, I had 8 tiny maps ready to be hung inside the clear baubles. Problem was, the maps wouldn't stay folded together, requiring them to be fixated somehow, still showing some of the wanted the folding. I solved this problem by adding a generous dot of glue gun glue between all the folds. That way the paper stuck together with a little bit of space between the folds. I glued a loop of very thin fishing line to the backmost inside part of the map, and just trapped the fishing line between the two halves of the bauble as I pressed those together. I added a gryffindor red ribbon bowtie to the top of the bauble, but the ornament still looked rather naked. So I modified and printed, cut and then ModPodged some Marauder related little symbols to the sides and back of the bauble - some footprints and a little Mischief Managed did the trick and made the ornament even more special in my opinion.
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